fantomNews™ — the ultimate know

Yes, it sounds trite, elementary, overly obvious – and yet, we’re encountering this almost every day: People who inquire about our SEO services who don’t seem to have an inkling of what online business is all about in the first place.

I’ve gone on record year ago stating that “this is the age of the clueless webmaster”: With prices for online access, domain names, web site hosting and dedicated servers dropping for years, even as early as 1998 or so the typical Web entrepreneur newcomer would no longer be a tech savvy nerd with a mercantile trait. Rather, these would be marketers, people who know how to turn a buck and build a business, many of whom had done it successfully offline for years.

The vast majority of them were anything but early adopters of high tech – but adopt it they finally did once they had begun to grasp the full potential of this new and widely unprecedented technology. And with a vengeance, too.

Nowadays, however, it seems there’s yet another type of upstart hitting the world of Internet commerce: People who lack business experience both offline an on. Essentially, today I’ll have to expand that statement of mine: “This is the age of the clueless webmaster and the inexperienced Web entrepreneur.”

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that offline business experience is mandatory, though it’s certainly a great help.

However, the laws of human nature (and the world in general) being what they are, there’s no easy workaround and no shortcuts that will absolve you from doing your elementary homework, regardless of what whichever loudmouthed Internet Marketing (IM) snake oil peddlers may claim when trying to sell you on their products and services.

Some of the marketing tools being offered out there are truly excellent and we wouldn’t want to miss them for a second. But a tool’s no good at all if you don’t know how to use it, right?

Which is where SEO comes in. Having heard of the importance of search engine optimization all over the place by now, many people seem to desperately cling to the (entirely mistaken) belief that SEO is the be all and end all of just about every dream of online success they may be nursing.

What’s worse: Very frequently they will also harp on vague, badly understood and utterly erroneous rumors that the superlative of generic SEO is black hat SEO. That’s like claiming that the ultimate (and essentially: the only important) tool in your workshed is a chainsaw – which may or may not be true under certain clearly definable conditions but which is dead wrong if you promote it to a general, absolutist assumption ruling out all other factors involved.

After all, not only does the status and value of said chainsaw depend on what you actually want to achieve, it’s also paramount that you know how to use it in the first place. Else, chances are that you’ll come to grief one way or the other.

Common sense? Sure. A prevalent given, then? Not so much, I’m afraid. So here’s a fantastic article by one of the great names and grand old men of both IM and SEO, Bob Massa, one of whose most estimable traits is the fact that he never minces his words:

The Top 10 List For Finding A Competent Plumber — or SEO

Elementary many of his statements may be – but where would we all be in business without a thorough grasp of “elementary” stuff such as basic arithmetic, for example.

Some gems:

First page search engine placement does not make you any money

Sales generate income not search engine placements. Even so, sales do not generate profits and without profits, you certainly don’t need SEO. Profits come from running an effective business that generates more income than expenses.

[…]

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever done a cash flow study for your online business? If you answered no, then you don’t need SEO you need a business plan.

Have you ever set a short term and long term objective and strategy for your online business? If you answered no then you don’t need SEO you need a business plan.

If you don’t have a business plan but are saying you need someone to “SEO” your site then you are not wanting a professional service to help you improve your business, you are wanting to pay someone a little bit of money to make you a lot of money without you having to do the real work that everyone else has to do to reap the rewards of a successful business and guess what? You are very likely going to be disappointed.

[…]

If you ever catch yourself saying you need someone to SEO your site, STOP! If you are saying that, you have a problem and SEO isn’t going to solve it.

Make sure you read it all, even though it’s a lengthy piece!

And to fend off any conceivable “accessibility” excuses, here’s the link again: Go here! So get moving!

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